When do you tell a guild member no?

Say you have this hypothetical situation. You’re in charge of a guild raid and since these are your friends, people you know who are kind, your looting system is just random rolling. You’re still master looter but anyone who wants an item can /roll and whoever is the highest gets it.

These are the people who will argue over loot in the fashion of “You take it, you need it more” “No, it’s okay, you won it fair and square so it’s yours”. It’s not uncommon for this to go on for several minutes, your guildmates are generous people.

So everything should go smoothly right?

Then say that a vanity item drops. Everyone can use it, and it’s not super rare but certainly not everyone has it. So several people roll on it and one wins it.

Now say that winner can’t use it right away when others who rolled could have. And say that their character won’t even been their main anymore in a month or so, as they have already announced they’re switching mains. What if this person has also been known to roll “need” for an off-spec item that another guildie could have used for their main spec?

This person has been in the guild for a long time and certainly doesn’t seem to be malicious, perhaps they’re simply unaware of how they appear. But either way, their actions can come across as rather greedy to other guildmates.

What would you do in that situation? Can you teach a grown adult how to think of others instead of just themselves? Or were they perfectly within their right to take something within a guild that’s more like a family?

5 Comments

Personally, I would approach the guildie in private and let him/her know about the situation, try to convince him/her that it would be best for the guild morale that they refrain from rolling on items on that alt character. I would make sure the person understood that it’s not them, as a person, the guild is having problems with, but rather the items going to “waste” on a character that won’t even be a main in a month’s time.

On the other hand, I do understand that this guildie has won the items fair and square under your current loot system, it couldn’t hurt to aknowledge this. I would try to appeal to his/her sense of community.

In the end, there would be no reason to “punish” the guildie. Like I said, under your current rules and loot system, he/she won the items fair and square.

I would agree, you cant really punish the person, but at least talk to this person and appeal to their sense of honor. Otherwise it will just seem the guild is moving away from that family feel. In the case of vanity items I’ve always been a supporter of you win it you get it, doesn’t matter what character your on.

I would say that probably the best thing for this is prevention; a mention before raiding that vanity gear goes to mains first is probably a good idea, unless the alt is brought because of a required role (healing or tank for someone with a DPS-only main). Other than that…it’s really down to every guildie’s own sense of honor and appropriateness. A firmer sense of expectations about what is fair game for offspecs/alts will make adjudicating these sorts of things easier.

This is a tough question, because it’s very much about the “feeling” of the matter. While the guild member did win the item fairly, because it’s a vanity item, it’s being treated differently from any other loot (in the minds of your raiders) than a normal upgrade would be.

Honestly, are their hard feelings if this members wins regular loot updates? Or are you handling all loot distribution to this character differently?

In your raid member’s defense, I will say that I personally collect different things on different characters, and that my “main” ONLY designates my current raider. I have some pretty flashy items (from back in the day) on characters that have been basically shelved, but the fact that I have those little virtual pixels means a lot to me.

I can see something like this causing a lot of stress in a tight-knit guild environment, but in the end, it’s just some pixels, not that different from your favorite off-hand or trinket. A new shiny is likely to replace even a vanity item in your virtual closet someday soon.

Thanks for the help, everyone. 🙂 I don’t quite want to impose rules on everyone simply because one person is acting this way. And if it had only been the vanity item, I wouldn’t have worried too much about it. It’s the constant behavior that’s worrying me.

I’m not 100% sure what I’ll do about it, but now at least I have some food for thought.